New inground pool and pool house/pavilion build North Carolina

[NCMike]

My wife and I have been dreaming of a pool ever since we built our house in 2010. We had a 400 amp electric meter installed and designed our septic tank and leach field so a pool would fit behind our house. In January of this year we finally made the decision to do it. Her parents had a 20x40 vinyl pool that we spent our last high school and all of college years swimming in. We knew we wanted a similar size. Out of 4 pool builders we talked with, only 3 actually gave us quotes, the 4th seemed like we were bothering him and I gave up on him after a month. We finally picked our pool builder based on the design and responsiveness in the design process and so far they have been great. Our sales rep/designer came to our house multiple times with his computer and spent hours with me tweaking the design to our liking. They have been very flexible and have allowed me to make changes pretty much at will. They truly seem to have "the customer is always right" attitude. So here are the details

Pool type: inground free form concrete pool with tanning ledge, all Jandy equipment
Pool Size: 46x22 at its longest and widest 4 ft shallow end, 7 ft deep end 9 in on tanning ledge
Coping: Ivory Travertine
Pool Deck, stamped and colored concrete
Water Features(We went a little overboard here): 3 sheer descents, 2 bubblers on tanning ledge, 3ftx3ftx15ft waterfall with jumping rock in middle
2 gas fire bowls on either side of the waterfall
1 gas fire pit beside pool
4 nichless LED lights(one on the tanning ledge)
Spa: 10ft x 7ft, 14 jets, 13ft spill over, 1 nichless LED light
Pumps: (3) 2.7 HP variable speed pumps, all are model VSSHP270AUT
Spa blower: model PSB220
Filter: Cartridge Filter CV580
Control/Automation: I Aqualink RS-PS12, Power center model number 6614AP-L
Salt System: Fusion Soft 1400
Heater 1: 400k btu propane gas heater model JXI400P (for quickly heating the spa and pool)
Heater 2: 132K btu heat pump model JE3000TR (for maintaining pool during start and end of season)
equipment pad is 14x3.5ft

I think thats about it for the Pool, Now the pool house/pavilion

50x28 total size, metal construction with all metal wrapped in cedar. We are big Disney World fans so if you have ever been we are going for the Wilderness Lodge look/feel.
30x28 sitting / dining area with wood burning fireplace.
20x17 outdoor U shaped kitchen,
20x11 bathroom/storage room/changing room.

Today is Gunite Day! I am watching them work on the tanning ledge right now as I am typing this. I have plenty of pictures during the build process that I will add. If you see anything crazy let me know. We just added the heat pump to the equipment list this week. We just had our 325 gallon propane tank filled this week and it is 2.00 / gallon. Our electric rate is $0.10/kw. From my calculations and the research I have done hear I think the heat pump will be worth it over using the gas heater to maintain the pool during april/may and september/october.

Also, here is the youtube video of our 3d model

 

[sktn77a]

Check out pool builders in Charlotte, Winston Salem, Greensboro, New Bern, Wilmington. You're not limited to Raleigh just because you live there. I found the Raleigh companies a bunch of arrogant pr_cks! Needless to say, we went elsewhere.

 

[NCMike]

Ours is technically from Durham. Maybe we got lucky with the sales/designer guy we were put in contact with but hes been great. He has already asked what my kids favorite colors and animals are. He is getting them pool floats when we are finished.

 

[NCMike]

So here are a few pictures from the build so far. This is over a few days/weeks. I don't have any from the original dig day, I hope my wife does. Lots of plumbing and rebar. We made a change after these pictures were taken to the slope from shallow to deep end. We wanted more shallow end so we increased the slope to about 1 x 4 and extended the shallow end by i think 5 or 6ft before it drops off. That change delayed us by 3 weeks on gunite because the contractor had already moved on to another pool and he had to come back to make the change.

 

[NCMike]

The big mound of dirt needed to be moved so we lucky for us my father in law is a farmer who lives just down the road. My wife got the nice tractor with the cab and heat, I got the old backhoe and we moved dirt for a few days. We also got the rocks from our waterfall, fire pit, and others just to sit around to tie everything together.

 

[Pleinjane]

Wow - that's going to be jaw-dropping gorgeous! I'm still in the bidding stages but I'll be watching this build as it progresses! It looks like you have plenty of room to add all the cool features.

 

[NCMike]

So as I said, yesterday was gunite day. The crew worked 12 hours straight. They seemed to do a great job. We made some changes to the steps from the tanning ledge. Originally we had steps coming off both sides, but that seemed like a waste of space and it ate into our shallow end. We moved the steps to the middle which I think gives us that space back. Overall very happy to finally have gunite because we have been waiting for 3 weeks for them to come. Every time they scheduled us for gunite it would rain. The only access to the pool is from a farm tractor entrance off the main highway and across the field beside our house. We did not want them on our concrete driveway. So we had to wait until it was dry enough for the concrete trucks not to get stuck in the field.

Now on to watering! The pool builder has already been out this morning and watered the pool. When we were digging the pool we hit ground water so we have been running a pump until today to keep it dry. The gunite guys told me to hook a soaker hose to that pump and use the ground water that will come back into the pool to help water the bond beam. I may try that today if I can find a soaker hose to use. May also setup some sprinklers and a timer to water it every hour or 2 during the hottest part of the day. I have a lot of them left over from when we seeded the yard years ago when we built the house.

Next up this week should be the footings for the pool house being dug, electrical to the pool house and equipment pad ran, and hopefully start tile in the pool.

 

[Gorilla83]

Looking fantastic!

PS - LOVE your garage

 

[Wake9909]

Wow...this is going to be gorgeous when it’s finished!!! Can’t wait to see the finished product! ????

 

[l1ltaral1l]

^^Agree on the detached garages

You have a great lot. Will you need a fence?

 

[NCMike]

Yes I will need a fence. The wife and county are requiring it.

So the pump in the bottom of the pool is not working out great. It is sucking in a lot of concrete dust/small rocks and getting clogged which trips the ground fault outlet. Not sure why its tripping the ground fault instead of the actual circuit breaker in the panel. I have a foot of water in the pool now just from ground water coming in and its still pouring in. I have what looks to be a 2 inch pvc pipe in the deep end that its coming in through, I assume this pipe will be used for the pressure valve that I have seen mentioned before. So I am watering with house water for now.

Quick question, how often should I be watering the concrete. Today's high is 84 and the sun is hot, pretty sure my neck and forehead got burnt just from being out this morning already. Also, is it worth it to setup lawn sprinklers on a timer or just do it manually? I don't want the ground around the pool to get muddy from overshoot from the sprinklers. I also don't want to water this manually every 2 hours for the next 2 weeks.

And thanks for the compliments on the garage. It is the reason we didn't build a pool 10 years ago when we built the house We had to choose between the garage and the pool. I love it, although we have learned no matter how much space and storage you have, we still find a way to fill it up.

 

[Gladius Nova]

I also don't want to water this manually every 2 hours for the next 2 weeks.

Is that what the PB recommended? I think it's more like 3 times a day (morning, noon, night) isn't it?

 

[NCMike]

Is that what the PB recommended? I think it's more like 3 times a day (morning, noon, night) isn't it?

No, my PB said whenever I can. The Gunite guy said the more water the better. I will probably just manually water it 3 times a day since I'm stuck at home anyways.

 

[NCMike]

I wanted to get some opinions on tile grout. We picked out our waterline tile, coping, and stone veneer a few months ago but not grout.

This is our waterline tile

Tile Series: Simulated Quartzite | NPTpool.com

www.nptpool.com

Our coping is a 12x12 ivory travertine. I don't have a website for the exact tile but this is close.

Hardscapes: Ivory | NPTpool.com

The natural beauty of Travertine makes it ideal for any outdoor space. Travertine hardscapes is available in different colors. For more hardscapes designs, Visit NPTpool.com

www.nptpool.com

Our stone veneer that is going on the spa wall and the raised wall on the tanning ledge is this

Tile Series: Travertine Split Face | NPTpool.com

www.nptpool.com

Our grout choices are here.

Color Selector

laticrete.com

So far we have settled on antique white. I don't know if it is best to match the tile as much as possible of if a lighter or darker grout would be better. In my mind a lighter/white grout would show stains more. That may not be an issue for a pool like it is a shower or tub. Any suggestions?

 

[NCMike]

Tile started yesterday, they will be back Monday to work on coping and stone veneer. One thing my wife and I didn't do when we picked out tile and coping was take the samples outside in full sunlight. These are a lot lighter in the sun than I remember in the PBs showroom. Doesn't bother us enough to change anything at this point but if I had to do it over again I would have went a little darker.

 

[NCMike]

The tile, coping and stone veneer are complete and work has begun on the pool house. Footings have been poured and the corner columns are up. Hopefully it stops raining soon and they can get back to work. This weeks struggle between the pool builder and pool house contractor is when to pour the equipment pad and who runs the main electrical line to the pool house. In my opinion I think I need one main sub panel in my pool house storage room, maybe around 150 amps or so based on my equipment. Then the pool builder should pull his electrical from that sub panel to the equipment pad. The pool builder is in a hurry and wants the electrical going to the pool pad to be completely separate from the pool house even though the equipment pad is on the back wall of the pool house. Also the pool builder wants the equipment pad poured now. I think he should wait a week or so until my pool house builder can put the first row of block and brick up on the pool house back wall so the equipment pad can be poured right up next to the wall. Here are some pictures of the progress so far.

 

[NCMike]

Its been a while since I have updated this. Its been a frustrating few months. Delay after delay due to sub contractors disputes with the pool builder and just bad scheduling around the weather. I feel like we take 1 step forward and 2 steps back each month. Since my last update here are the few major things that have been completed.

Pool equipment has been plumbed. Heat pump is very close to the house, they are suppose to move it our as far as possible. Manufacture requires 12 inches. Also added an additional pool pump so we now have 4.

New electrical meter has been set. They cut a water line in the process that I had to fix myself.

Pool house is nearing completion. I have a different contractor for the pool house and he is slow but steady. Its turning our better than we could have ever envisioned.

Waterfall and all rock work is complete. The pool builder and rock sub contractor "negotiated" for over a month on price before they every showed up to work. So I had over a month of no work on the pool between tile and coping and the rock work. Basically no work on the pool for the whole month of May.

Stamped concrete floor was poured under pool house early so my other contractor could continue work. Then 2 weeks ago we poured the decking around the pool. Concrete sub contractor is horrible. They usually show up unannounced and lacking tools needed to complete the job. My family has alot of farm land, therefore we have heavy equipment. On more than one occasion I have had to use our Backhoe and mini excavator to help them so they could complete the task they were working on and not leave to go rent something to come back who knows when. Also, the concrete decking around the pool has many cracks in it already after only 2 weeks. They did not put enough saw cuts in it when they poured it. They came back yesterday and put some more in but the damage is done. Trying to figure out the best way forward right now. Pool builder is fine with ripping it all out and making them redo it. But that would mean probably another month delay. I plan to have Sundek installed anyway so we have decide to wait 3 more weeks for the concrete to completely cure then decide how to proceed.

Plaster company came out to do their prep work a few weeks ago and for some reason plugged the pvc that has been letting ground water in where a hyrdostatic valve is suppose to go. They plugged it and put hydraulic cement over it. That was over a month before plaster is scheduled. We usually have a 1 -3 foot of ground water in the pool. They pumped it out and plugged it while I was not home. I had to chisel it out myself at 11pm once I got home. This triggered an email from the Owner of the pool company apologizing to me and explaining that this is not how they do business, etc. etc...

So, after all that we are scheduled for plaster next week sometime. Of course there is a hurricane coming our way so I am expecting another delay. Dig day was March 1st and it has been a long 5 months. I hope we are done with the pool builder by end of august and maybe can enjoy the pool September into October with the heater(s) extending the season.

On top of all of that, the family dog died which was not a good time for the kids and I also managed to flip my father in laws backhoe into my pond during all of this which was fun. Water was cold but at least it was in the shallow end. We pulled it out, replaced the oil, fuel and hydraulic fluid, and all the filters and it runs like a champ still.

Thanks for reading my rant! Pictures coming soon!

Mike

 

[NCMike]

So here are some pictures of the pool progress. You can see the equipment pad is done and equipment is set. The heat pump is supposed to be moved away from the wall at pool startup and the SWG was plumbed to far away from the main electrical panel. I guess the cord on the SWG was to short. You can also see the waterfall with fire bowls on each side of it and a fire pit was completed. They still need to color the grout between some of the rocks. Also pictured is the screw up from the plaster company where they plugged and cemented over the hydrostatic valve pipe that was letting ground water in.

 

[NCMike]

Heres some pictures of the pool house progress. Fire place is complete. stamped hardwood floors look good. We have not sealed them yet, my builder wanted to wait until all brick and stone work is complete. We are adding stone on the fireplace and two wood boxes on either side of it. Kitchen cabinets are coming from Werever Outdoor Cabinets. They should be here next week. Pool house contains one large bathroom/changing room and one storage room. There will be an outdoor shower to the left of the storage room door. Cedar trim and pine tongue and groove ceiling are complete. Hopefully they get stained next week.

 

[NCMike]

And lasty my own screw up, we all make mistakes I guess. I was cleaning up around the pond getting some small trees and limbs up. I was backing between the corn and the edge of the pond when the bank gave away and the backhoe rolled over very slowly into the pond. I braced myself in the cab and just rode it down. Called a tow company and they had it out in less than an hour. We drained all the fluids out and replaced all the filters and it fired right back up.

Also, RIP Tippy, she was my buddy and was great with the kids.